I've revised this How can I protect myself and my family from ticks and Lyme Disease?FAQ to include comments by jessam on tick removal. Since I can't use direct links in the FAQ, I had to just refer to the Placerville Veterinary Clinic.

The direct link for tick removal is:

How to remove ticks

and the link for tick removal tools is:

Tick removal tools

A disclaimer is that the site happens to sell one sort of tool, so that should be kept in mind, but the analysis sounds reasonable to me.

Claire